1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to foot operated levers such as are to be used for opening hinged members such as support doors or lids or for lifting toilet seats and particularly to a lever that is operated with the foot wherein successive depressions of a single pedal both opens and closes the hinge.
2. Prior Art and Information Disclosure
A number of situations exist where it is desirable to open a hinge supporting a door or lid without using the hands. For example, members of the public using a public toilet often refrain from touching the toilet seat in a public restroom thereby neglect raising the seat. This leads to unsanitary use of the toilet.
Another situation is where a user wishes to store or retrieve heavy articles into or from a container and he would prefer opening or closing the lid without laying the article down.
For these situations, it is advantageous to have a foot operated means to open the lid (or toilet seat). A number of devices have been disclosed in the patent literature for foot operated devices for lifting toilet seats. U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,988 to Woo discloses a seat lifting device which opens the seat by depression of a foot pedal and locks the seat in the upright position. The locking mechanism is released by releasing a second catch in order to lower the seat. The problem with this construction is that, after the catch is released, there is no control over the speed with which the seat returns to the horizontal position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,506 to Munford et al is for a foot operated linkage installed on the floor of the toilet area for raising and lowering the seat. The device occupies substantially more space than the instant invention and has no means for locking the seat in position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,324 to Lirette is for a toilet seat lifter having a "handle bar" design which is partially operated by the hand.
Other lifting devices such as frequently seen on garbage containers are operated by stepping on a pedal which maintains the lid in an open position as long as the pedal is depressed but which closes as soon as the foot is removed from the pedal. This arrangement is obviously unsatisfactory for toilet seats and is even inconvenient for situations where it is desirable to keep the lid open for a time after removing the foot from the pedal.